The NAACP has been collecting information about early voting advocacy by black churches in Florida, hoping to convince the Justice Department to strike down a slew of new state voting laws it claims are intended to thwart growing minority participation at the polls ahead of next year's presidential election.

In a report released Monday, the NAACP argues that the new laws amount to a coordinated and comprehensive assault on minorities' voting rights at a time when their numbers in the population and at the ballot box have increased.

State-level voting restrictions are an attempt to suppress the minority vote and prevent them from exercising political influence, according to a report released by the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Monday.

The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the NAACP have been tracking the rising tide of legislative measures designed to block access to the polls for voters of color. What our research has uncovered is a cause for grave concern: a coordinated and comprehensive assault has been launched against our voting rights.

Today the United States Department of Education and the Department of Justice issued policy guidance that provides greater clarity and encouragement to school districts and higher education institutions as they seek to explore available options for promoting and maintaining meaningful diversity. Released in two parts —one for K-12 school districts and the other for higher education institutions — the guidance provides concrete and creative examples of programs that comply with constitutional mandates in the Supreme Court’s decisions in two recent cases, Grutter v.Bollinger (2